Travail (Hastings' Dictionary)

In modem editions of AV a distinc- tion has gradually arisen between ' travail ' and ' travel,' the former being used when the meaning is to labour (or as subst. for 'labour,' 'trouble'), especially in childbirth, the latter wlien it is simply to journey. But in the editions of 1611 tliore was no such distinction.

Thus in 1611 Mt 25" reads, ' For the kingdome of heaven is as a man travaUing into a fane countrey ' ; but Is 21" ' In the forest in Arabia shall yee lodge, O yee travelling companies of Dedanim.' So in Ec 4 we lind ' .4gaine I considered all travaile ' ; but in 4 ' Better is an handfuU with quietnesse, then both the hands full with travell and vexation of spirit.' Nor have the editors or printers carried out their distinction completely. In La 3^ ' He hath . .

compassed me with gall and travel,' the spelling of AV is retained in mod. editions (Cov. ' travayle,' RV ' travail '). In Nu 20'* tlie sense has evidently been missed, the wider meaning of toil and trouble in the wilderness being taken as if it were merely the marching through it : AV 1611, ' Thou knowest all the travaile that hath befallen us' (mod. edd. ' travel,' RV ' travaU '). Tlie Eng. word i8 simply the Fr. travail, toil, trouble, the origin of which is unknown.

In Cotgrave's French Dictionary travttii is described as ' travell, toyle, teene, labour, business, paines-tattin-,', trouble, molestation, care.' Travelling, which is now undertaiien for pleasure, was so conspicuous a form of toil and trouble that it appropriated the name. The change of spelling was assisted by the fact that 'traveil' was another variety of spelling in early use. Thus in Ec 2'^ AV 1611, ' For all his dayes are sorrowes, and his traveile, griefe.'

The mean- ing was sometimes ' be weary,' as Is 4{pi Wya Who foraothe hopen in the Lord, shul chaunge strengthe, take to federes as of an egle ; rennen, and not travailen ; gon, and not faylen.' For the spelling travel ' for labour cf. Gosson, Schoote of Abuse, 41, ' I burnt one candle to seek another, and lost both my time and my Lravell when I had doone' ; and in the sense of labour in childbirth, U.all, Works, ii.

11, ' If the house of David had not lost all mercy and good nature, a Daughter and [of] David could not so neere the time of her travell have bin destitute of lodging in the city of David.' J. HASTINGS.